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How to draw YING

By Linda Farmer, CZT ~ March 21st, 2018

Today’s pretty Ying tangle is from Cat Kwan, a member of the first CZT-Asia class, and it’s her first on the site.

I’ve been saving Ying for this week when we celebrate the first day of Spring (yesterday, March 20th) AND roughly the peak bloom time and the annual “Bloom Watch” for Washington’s Yoshino Cherry (Prunus x yedoensis) blossoms. (There’s even a video cam for the Bloom Watch, unfortunately there were technical difficulties and it was down when I last checked it.)

Here’s some background on the Cherry Blossoms and the annual Bloom Watch,

In a ceremony at the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C., on March 27, 1912, First Lady Helen Herron Taft and Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, planted the first two of 3,020 flowering cherry trees gifted to the nation’s capital from the city of Tokyo. As a show of gratitude for this generous gift, former President William Howard Taft arranged for the United States to send 50 flowering dogwood trees to Japan in 1915. This reciprocal gift featured a species of tree native to the eastern United States and Canada.

These gestures of goodwill fostered a rich tradition of exchanging cherry and dogwood trees that continues to this day.

This information is contained in the United States Postal Service press release announcing the Joint release in 2015 in the USA and Japan of these gorgeous commemorative stamps, which are still available for purchase today. The only reason I know about these is because coincidentally earlier this week Robert showed me the set he just received. What great serendipity!

Stamp artist Paul Rogers worked with art director and designer William J. Gicker to create the U.S. stamps. Japanese artist Junko Kaifuchi illustrated the stamps from Japan Post. The left side of the stamp sheet features four new stamp designs: two created by the Postal Service and two created by Japan Post.

Continuing with the Cherry Blossom theme. As you may recognize from examining your Microns, the logo for the manufacturer of our treasured Sakura Micron Pens, is a symbolic cherry blossom. And indeed if Google Translate is to be relied upon, in Japanese sakura means cherry blossoms.

About her tangle’s background and its name, Kit writes:

In Cantonese, the pronunciation of is “Ying”. This is a gift for my sister, Kit-Ying.

She likes Japan, and hope to travel to Japan a long time ago. I want to create a tangle to her as I know she feel depression last year, then I started to find some ideas from the symbolic element of Japan – Sakura.

This idea is come from Sakura, but I think it can have many variations.

Here are some of Cat’s beautiful tiles featuring Ying.

And here Cat illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing YIng and she features it in a closeup of one of her lovely Zentangle® tiles above.

Image copyright the artist and used with permission, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Please feel free to refer to the steps images to recreate this tangle in your personal Zentangles and ZIAs, or to link back to this page. However the artist and TanglePatterns.com reserve all rights to these images and they must not be publicly pinned, altered, reproduced or republished. They are for your personal offline reference only. Thank you for respecting these rights. Click the image for an article explaining copyright in plain English.

As you enjoy any of the tangles on the site, please leave a comment of thanks and encouragement to show the artists you appreciate them for sharing their creativity to inspire yours.

Check out the tag catk for more of Cat’s tangles on TanglePatterns.com.

Happy Spring, y’all! 🙂

Related Links

Linda's List of Zentangle-Original Patterns — here is the complete list of original tangles (aka "official tangles") created and introduced by founders Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas, including those not published online. If you are new to the Zentangle Method I highly recommend learning a few of the published Zentangle classics first.

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Another great jump-starter for new tanglers is the original Official Zentangle Kit. The Kit includes all the supplies you'll need to get started properly: Sakura Micron Pens, Zentangle Tiles, pencil, sharpener, tortillion, a booklet and an instructional DVD by co-founder Maria Thomas. Click on the image for more information about the Kit and its contents.

14 comments to How to draw YING

I love this post, Linda! It made me appreciate Cat’s new tangle even more than I might have. 🙂 Cat, wonderful stepout and LOVELY sample tiles! I look forward to experimenting with Ying and perhaps combining it with other botanical tangles. Thank you!

What a beautiful gift to your sister, Cat! What is the beautiful vinelike tanglepattern in the background of the lovely tile at the bottom of your stepout? Is there a stepout to that pattern somewhere? Thank you!

Happy to know my first tangle is launched the first day of Spring. Thanks Linda!! The information of Cherry Blossoms is great…. you let me know more about Sakura in United States.
My sister is very happy too… and her birthday is in the end of March, I think it is a birthday gift to her!^^

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